A City of Acronyms

They are everywhere here. Over the past few weeks I can't help but think about this recurring theme throughout DC. I mean, the shortened version of the city is itself an acronym.

When I worked at the Library of Congress (which I loving refer to as the LOC, oh the irony), there were departments that reported to CRS (Congressional Research Service, there again). They had at least a dozen of them and I had just started mastering their meanings before I left.

Now, I'm at the Council (CCCU), where my shortened title is the Admin Asst for the EVP (AA for the EVP). It's this signature title that is in all my emails. When I go out and tell people my title and where I work, I'm old by the time I'm done. So, I shorten it.

And so does everyone else around here. Are people too high strung and fast paced in DC that spouting their titles is too much? Is there that much work to do (or pretend to do if they're in gov't) that wasting time with the extended version is too time consuming?

I went to a party this weekend, where I asked a guy what he does, and he rambled off all these letters. Can someone actually BE a stream of letters? Here in DC one can. After trying to decode them, I eventually folded and asked for the translated version. The answer: A cancer research assistant at the department of health (or something along those lines). CRA at the HD. Eh, you get the idea.

In looking back at NC, there wasn't this push to condense. What is it about DC? Can the name of a city be a prelude to the people inside it?